“The Humanium Metal Initiative was launched in El Salvador in November,” abcnews.go.com reports. “It aims to take guns off the streets and have the metal recycled and sold, with the revenue being funneled back into anti-violence programs, according to IM Swedish Development Partner, the group behind the initiative. ‘Humanium’ is the name it gives to the metal produced from recycled guns.” Aside from Abba, is there a single Swedish name you’d recognize? ‘Cause chances are it’s this guy, the human behind Humanium . . .

Hans Blix (above), the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a supporter of the gun initiative, said that when you see an ingot of the recycled gun metal you understand how it can be used for different purposes.

“You can make a pistol or a revolver of it and it’s lethal,” Blix said. But the same metal also “can be used for very good purposes.”

For those of you born after ABBA’s heyday, Mr. Blix was the head of the IAEA in 2002 when the commission tried and failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And his heroic disarmament efforts in North Korea have been immortalized for all time (video NSFW):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPSvIz9NDs

So you can kind of understand how Hans has it in for actual “there it is” weapons. As for creating and marketing humanium, IM reckons they’ve only just begun.

IM Swedish Development Partner so far has several tons of the metal between existing stockpiles in El Salvador and Guatemala. The last weapon destruction in El Salvador destroyed 1,825 guns. The organization plans to scale up its work as demand grows for the metal.

“We hope that the Humanium Metal Initiative will also be an incentive for world leaders to promote weapons destructions program, as part of the commitments made under the Sustainable Development Goals/agenda 2030,” IM senior adviser Peter Brune said in an email.

The organization says it is currently negotiating with several global brands. The metal could be used for items ranging from jewelry to smartphone cases. The metal will not initially be available on the open market, but rather to specific commercial partners.

“These are the weapons from which people get killed every day,” Blix said. “In the Bible, they say you can make swords into ploughshares. So it’s a famous, old, thousands-of-years wisdom, and that is what we should do.”

Alternatively, as Abba pointed out, The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall, it’s simple and it’s plain. Why should I complain?

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53 COMMENTS

  1. Those who turn their swords into ploughshares will work for those who didn’t.

    Maybe not as old as your quote Mssr Blix but a more apt description of humanity over all.

  3. Swedish women should be packing those guns. Might cut down on the sex assault problem they’re having there with their immigrants.

    • Exactly. If this guy wants to help humanity out, he should be distributing those guns to women in Sweden and Germany — and working on getting the nations of the EU to restore self-defense as a legally protected human right.

  5. Well, eliminating guns (also knives, bats, stones, and furniture you can stub your toe upon) “for the humanity” makes sense if you think everyone is crazy, stupid, reactive, or some combination. No people can be entrusted with dangerous things, so get rid of all the things.

    If you distinguish between peaceful, responsible folk looking to protect themselves at need from terrorists, thugs, crazies, and predators, then eliminating people’s weapons “for the humanity” is good for which humanity?

    It sounds like Herr Blix is eager to consign some women to assault or worse, without the means to choose otherwise for the general safety of hu*man*ity? The question is how many women traded off for how many humans?

    BTW, when did women quit being human? Maybe this guy spent too much time in Iran.

  6. “In the Bible, they say you can make swords into ploughshares. So it’s a famous, old, thousands-of-years wisdom, and that is what we should do.” — Hans Blix

    Now that there is a whopper of a Biblical verse taken utterly and totally out of context!

    The only context where the Bible glorifies turning your swords into ploughshares is AFTER God has come to the world, expelled all evildoers, and installed Himself as the ultimate (and only) righteous ruler.

    All other Biblical contexts demonstrate the utter foolishness of turning your swords into ploughshares.

    • AMEN. And JESUS CHRIST will rule and reign with his saints. After waging war. In righteousness he doth judge and make WAR. Blix is an idiot…

      • Blix is anything but an idiot. What he is, though, is establishment, a very well-connected Swede. His grandfather and father were medical scientists of the first rank, and he himself has a Cambridge Phd, as well as an old world Juris Doctor degree, a research degree not the tests-only type.

        Blix was an active member of many Swedish administrations, and a former Foreign Minister, before devoting himself full time to arms control issues. He was and is part of the same upper-class Swedish gaggle that had such influence at the UN for decades. For such people it is never considered a fault to make the case for peace, for less guns, for good nanny-state administration. They try to put their fingerprints on every pathetic failing of the world, so that they can say “there, see, we tried. It’s your fault the problem wasn’t solved.” It’s rather clever, politically…..right up until the Muslims get your number and move into your homeland aggressively.

        Recall that when Hans was 14 years old Sweden was allowing the Third Reich use of the Swedish National Railway in order to make the continued brutal occupation of Norway more economical for Hitler. At the same time they were shooting down US reconnaissance aircraft if they crossed the Swedish coast. Educated Swedes are incredibly careful to cultivate an image of peace-loving placidity. In truth they simply had to stop brutalizing Europe when their army was no longer large enough, their coffers no longer full enough, to keep up the violence.

        Recall also this, a fact Blix knows: When the cold war was at its height and the Soviets were building enormous numbers of armored divisions, Prime Minister Olaf Palme made a secret deal (in 1961) with the US, to let the US park nuclear-tipped Polaris missile baring nuclear submarines in the fjords of western Sweden, notably that of Gothenberg (Göteborg). All the while, as we protected Sweden and Norway, Palme almost nightly insulted the US for its efforts in Vietnam, and our weapons sales. He himself, though, became the secret bribester for Bofors artillery sales to india.

        Sweden has been the ultimate free rider on the post-WWI and then post-WWII industrial booms. They’ve managed their money well, been devoted to mercantilism, and propagandized the world with state-of-the-art brand management.

        I’ve spent a quarter of my adult lifetime (mostly summers…) in Sweden. I’ve done more hunting there than in my home state. It has its charms.

        • Guys like Blix and many other Swedish gov/NGO/UN types get the last laugh. Sweden still has high marginal income taxes, high “social taxes,” and yet those living abroad working for even the pissiest non-profit/cause don’t have to pay Swedish income taxes. So if they’ve done what every little budding Wallenberg does, and move their money abroad, then work abroad (declaring residency elsewhere), and manage to land in a foreign jurisdiction that excempts do-gooders and UN employs (and world bank employees) from taxation…..then they get to just ring up investment savings tax free. It is the reason Europeans chase the international organization jobs, and create so many new offshore NGOs. They aren’t the idiots. It’s the socialist voters back home in Sweden that are the idiots….not that they’d agree with us.

    • That was funny. I wish I had the video, but one Saturday SNL spoofed Swedish Prime Minister Palme’s constant whining to the press about the US. (We’re a Swedish-speaking household, though we rarely indulge.) So during the joke news segment, one of the cast said, “And in the news, Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme announced “dittalidit, fem fingrar på fitan.'”

      This translates as “humdedum, five fingers on the pu##y.” Kind of foreshadowing of more recent news?

  8. The thing I like best about the Swedish people is that they, like Hillary Clinton, will absolutely NEVER be president of the United States.

  10. A couple of tons annually….and if you buy this overpriced ingot you can tell your customers how great you are. Considering a car on average is 1.5 tons the gesture is laughable.

  11. It hurts to look at that picture of ruined guns, when I know just how many ordinary El Salvadorans lost their only means of defense. Now it’s just lying in that pile.

    • “I hereby suggest that this metal be used in the construction of Hillary’s jail cell.”

      I’m convinced that is still a possibility.

      Note the way Trump responds when asked about it.

      “Probably not”, “We have more important things to do first”, ect.

      As far as I know he hasn’t *explicitly* said he wouldn’t. And that makes sense, considering he is known for being non-committal before he finally makes up his mind on something,

      Trump wants approval from his base on how he is doing. That Carrier deal? Effectively meaningless in the overall, but *hugely* popular with the base, and he knows it.

      On prosecuting the HildaBeast even though Obama formally pardons her:

      As far as I know, pardons are only granted for past crimes, not *future* crimes committed. That’s important, once Trump is sworn in with his administration he can claim “new criminal behavior has come light in the FBI’s Clinton Foundation probe.” or whatever.

      Invite her to come in for a ‘friendly chat’ with the FBI and nail her for lying to the FBI, for ‘pay for play’, etc.

      Trump is powered by ego. There is only *one* thing he wants more than being elected POTUS.

      And that, my friends is being re-elected President. If he makes good on his promise to ‘lock her up’, that pretty much guarantees his base gets him re-elected.

      And that is what I expect to happen…

      *snicker*

        • I’m not so sure on that one…

          “Third, pardons only deal with actions that have already taken place. A president can’t forgive future actions.”

          http://stillwatergazette.com/2016/12/05/column-a-presidential-pardon/

          Trump is inaugurated. The FBI can then ask for a friendly chat with her about her ‘foundation’ and how it raises money. (They haven’t done this, *yet*.)

          When she lies about it, the lies take place in the future.

          It’s not the crime that trips most people up. It’s the lying about it under sworn oath that earns you a trip to Club Fed, the federal penitentiary…

        • Coolbreeze,

          A President can only pardon someone after the justice system prosecutes them and finds them guilty. No one has prosecuted Hillary yet. The only way that Obama could pardon Hillary is if the Justice Department hurries up and charges her and she pleads guilty. Note that this would have to happen at lightning speed since Obama leaves office in 6 weeks.

          If that were to occur, then our Criminal Justice system could not charge Hillary again for the same crimes thanks to the Fifth Amendment. In that sense, an Obama pardon would protect Hillary from future charges for the very same offenses under which she was already prosecuted. Of course if someone discovered new crimes that warranted different charges, Obama’s pardon would be useless.

        • Uncommon sense says: ““Third, pardons only deal with actions that have already taken place. A president can’t forgive future actions.””

          Nixon would argue that with you, if he were able. On two grounds:
          1. He was granted a pardon for all his actions based on Watergate.
          2. “If the President does it, that means it’s not illegal,”

          There’s a third problem: What Hillary did is in the past, not in the future.
          Her lies are already on record. Her security breaches are already on record.
          If she were pardoned, there’s no reason for her to lie under oath, because she won’t be put under oath for anything done in the past.

          You’re right, though. Look at “Scooter” Libby; no crime was committed, but he was convicted of lying under oath during an investigation of the uncommitted crime.

        • Uncommom_sense says: “A President can only pardon someone after the justice system prosecutes them and finds them guilty.”

          Absolutely untrue.
          Nixon was pardoned for any crimes connected to Watergate he might have committed, and he was never prosecuted for them.

  13. I’m more concerned with taking MS13 off the streets of El Salvador — and keeping them the hell out of the US.

    • Judging by his picture it appears that Mr. Blix would render down to approximately 250 pounds of humanium (soylent green).
      ? Couldn’t help it.

  14. …metal recycled and sold, with the revenue being funneled back into anti-violence programs…

    What revenue would that be after paying for transporting, sorting, smelting, etc.? The whole project seems to be a money pit.

    Lotsa well-known Swedish stuff: ABB (industrial conglomerate), Volvo (autos), Saab (autos, defense), Orrefors (crystal), Hasselblad (optics), Husqvarna (tools), Thule (automotive), Bofors (arms), Flexlink (automation), Loomis (security), and of course everybody’s favorite Ikea (flat furnishings).

      • I’m about to buy an 1896 Mauser from Husquarna. The only Swedish thing that’ll make it into my home, together with my M38 Carl Gustafs.

      • The Husqvarna in USA that makes lawn and garden stuff was spun off of Husqvarna Sweden several years ago, for what that’s worth.

      • It’s true that Husqvarna Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag bit the dust years ago, but they made some very good guns during their time. My brother-in-law still occasionally uses the 9.3 x 62 rifle that his father used to use when hunting moose, though he seems to prefer just putting a heavier bullet in his modern “Carl Gustav” 6.5 x 55. (A contemporary mauser-style action rifle. Looks like a Winchester otherwise). Moose may be mean, but they aren’t tough.

    • Revenue will come from selling the alloy ingots (alloys that will be different for each smelt, and of unknown quality) to selected companies who don’t care about the makeup of the alloys as long as they can be made into “Humanium” jewelry to be sold at exorbitant prices to those who want to show their “humanity” by sporting ex-gun “Humanium” doo-dads to impress their friends.
      There’s a lot of money in them thar idiots.

  15. I say add a bit of special metal from Hanford, make pocket watches, and distribute them to anti-gunners around the world.

      • He’s talking about ‘salting’ the metal with some of the nastier radioactive elements.like Caesium-137. 🙂

        Tritium is a low energy beta emitter, your skin can stop the particles.

        Caesium-137 can go *through* you…

  16. It’d be awesome if someone were to steal the ingots of metal from a warehouse and turn them back into guns, just to spite these fools.

    • You wouldn’t want to.

      With who-knows-what-the hell in the alloy you have a glorified pot-metal going on there.

      No way in *hell* would I trust it to withstand potential chamber pressures…

  17. I’ve got a do-gooder….let’s feed the starving dogs and cats by grinding up the convicted bad guys. Fat kitties and pups. No horrible overcrowded jails. Win-win!

  19. “The organization plans to scale up its work as demand grows for the metal.”

    As demand grows???? Right, because there’s currently no demand for steel and aluminum alloys. Is this dude serious?

  20. Just another Elitist Euro-Trash Globalist attempting to impose his will on the peasents, and unwashed masses…Meaning “only his side will have the weapons!” And we all know from unrevisioned history how bad that works out for the common folks who have no real pull…The only bible verse I particularly remember is this……
    ________________________________________

    According to the Gospel of Luke, sell your cloak and buy a sword is an instruction by Jesus to his disciples which has been interpreted in several ways. At the Last Supper Jesus says: He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”

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